


I'm Sorry, My Princess

by AngelQueen



Category: The Mummy Series
Genre: Angst, Canon - Movie, F/M, Introspection, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-16
Updated: 2011-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-22 16:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelQueen/pseuds/AngelQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why didn't Imhotep recognize Evie as Princess Nefertiri?</p><p>Perhaps he did. Eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Sorry, My Princess

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own _The Mummy_ and its associated characters. I make no claim on them and write this purely for my own entertainment and the entertainment of others. No copyright infringement intended.

When I first saw you, I thought that you were Anck-su-namun. The resemblance between you had fooled many in Pharaoh's court, those who had not known either of you well. You might have found it insulting, given your history with Anck-su-namun, but after being imprisoned for three thousand years, I suppose I was disoriented.

I called you by my beloved's name, but you did not reply, only pressed yourself against the wall, trembling and terrified. It was in those moments that I examined you more closely and saw the truth. You were not Anck-su-namun, but Nefertiri, Pharaoh's favorite daughter, my friend from times long since gone to dust. You suspected that I loved Anck-su-namun, though you never spoke of it. Your watchful eyes were telling enough whenever my beloved and I were in the same room together.

My repayment to you for your silence was to help kill your father while you watched, helpless to do anything but scream. I dishonored you and our friendship greatly that night in the name of love, something I came to regret deeply. Still, that was little excuse to you who grieved the loss of a beloved parent, no matter how tyrannical he was.

As my priests pulled me from Pharaoh's chamber, leaving my beloved behind, I saw you surrounded by your Medjai protectors and handmaidens. Your women were crying, and I do believe I saw a hint of tears on your cheeks, but you appeared composed. Until our eyes met, that is. Your dark eyes, which had always held such affection and kindness towards me, widened in surprise, only to then narrow in hatred. I had made you into a person you had hoped to never be: the regent of Egypt, the holder of the throne until your brother returned from war, the daughter of a murdered Pharaoh. Enraged, you shouted for the Medjai to kill me, to bring you my head. My priests were clever, though. We knew the palace better than anyone, and thus escaped from the Medjai who pursued us.

Anck-su-namun was dead, my actions had destroyed my standing as a priest, not to mention my most greatly treasured friendship, and I was now the most hunted man in all of Egypt. There was nothing left to lose, so Hamunaptra became my new destination. My priests found me a pretty little slave to use as a sacrifice, and I came within a hair's breadth of restoring Anck-su-namun to life. Only the arrival of the Medjai stopped me. How did they know to find us here? Were we followed, perhaps betrayed? Or did you know, Princess? You always seemed to know more than you should have. Perhaps you divined that I would seek to bring back the woman who was, in your mind, the cause of everything, and there was only one place where that could happen. Still, what came next horrified me. The Hom-Dai, my Princess? Surely you did not order that, you would not have been so cruel to curse the Medjai with such a responsibility? Or did you wish, in your grief, to punish them as well, for failing to protect your father?

Three thousand years of agony I suffered, feeling the bite of the scarabs long after they had died of starvation. I did not enter the Underworld, nay, I was denied that comfort. I hovered in between the two worlds, as the curse bade all those who were placed under its purview. I suffered, called out desperately for Anck-su-namun, pleaded desperately with the gods to allow me to see her again, but to no avail. The gods had abandoned me, their false priest, the breaker of the sacred oaths.

Still, when I awakened, it was not to Anck-su-namun's face, but to another familiar voice ringing in my ears. I was not recognize it as yours, the princess of old, as the voice had very different inflections, and its accent was atrocious. I did not ponder it long, unwilling to question the gift of being returned to the world of the living. I instead focused on finishing what I had begun. Anck-su-namun would be brought back, and I would destroy any Medjai who remained in this world for the suffering they had unleashed on me.

In the city my new servant called Cairo, I thanked you for setting me free. Later when I found you locked in a bedroom like a common criminal, I knew that the gods had been cruel to you as well, perhaps your own punishment for authorizing the Hom-Dai. They had deposited your soul into this new world and abandoned you to be ordered about by others. You were a princess of Egypt, the daughter of a god-on-earth. You were not meant to be commanded, but to command.

I would do you a final service. You may have condemned me to the worst of all curses, but my sins against you were just as great. Perhaps, in setting you free to return to the Underworld where you could be worshipped as you deserved, I would settle matters between us. By the same stroke, of course, I would also restore Anck-su-namun. We would both profit.

* * *

 **Eight Years Later**

 

The pyramid crumbled around my ears, and the raging souls of the Underworld clawed at my legs, but I took no notice. I could only watch as the love of two lifetimes fled from me, and I cursed the fools who had brought me an impure mind and body to resurrect Anck-su-namun in. Tears pricked my eyes, the first I had shed in millennia, as she ran from me to save her own life.

Anck-su-namun had abandoned me.

I could not comprehend or accept it, and I turned. There you were, Your Highness, staring at me with those same dark eyes I had once known so well. You had freed your husband from the grip of the Underworld's denizens. Troublesome creature though he was, I could not help but feel some respect for him. He had turned down a chance to rule the entire world, had banished the army of Anubis. Perhaps more importantly, he had won your heart, which could not have been an easy task.

I saw him stare back at me, his gaze filled with anger and loathing, and I could not blame him for that. I had done your family great harm, and nothing could make up for that. I had even condoned Anck-su-namun's desire to murder you before the eyes of your brother, husband, and son. There was good reason for him to despise me. Still, my eyes were drawn back to you. Your eyes were different. I saw sympathy, understanding.

I saw recognition. You remembered me, perhaps even from before that heinous night. Perhaps you recalled me as your tutor and friend, the one who taught you the ways of the gods and of government, and not just as the murderer of your father.

I could not help but offer you a faint smile. You had grown, Your Highness. You had moved beyond the furious princess who demanded my head. Your love had made you far greater, eased your temper and made you wiser.

All of these thoughts flew through my mind in a matter of moments. The past and present mingled and I regretted so much. Anck-su-namun and I could have done so many things differently. Would you have helped us if we had only asked you? Perhaps you might have convinced Pharaoh to release Anck-su-namun, even before he decided to claim her as his wife. So many possibilities that we left unexplored, and for what? Fear, or the selfish belief that you could not possibly understand our devotion to each other? How the gods must laugh at our follies.

There was no way to change the past. What is done, cannot be undone.

With a final nod of goodbye in your direction, I loosened my grip on the broken floor and allowed the hordes of the Underworld claim me at last. My last thoughts, however, were not with Anck-su-namun. They were with you. I'm sorry, my princess. I am so, so sorry. Those are paltry words, unworthy of amending my many sins against you, but they are all I have to offer.

Farewell, Nefertiri.


End file.
